Athletics Federation of India cuts flab

The rules, framed and circulated back in December 2015, state that in the event of individual athletes being entered in corresponding relay events they will necessarily have to be included in the list of maximum of six athletes in a relay team.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has realised its mistake in not including individual 400m runners in its 4x400m relay teams for Rio.

Having not named the individual runners, Muhammed Anas and Nirama Sheoran in the relay teams in an obvious attempt to include more athletes, the AFI came to know on Wednesday that rules do not permit such a method. A relay team is allowed to name a maximum of six athletes.

The rules, framed and circulated back in December 2015, state that in the event of individual athletes being entered in corresponding relay events they will necessarily have to be included in the list of maximum of six athletes in a relay team.

Accordingly, the selectors dropped the idea of deciding who between Jithin Paul and Lalit Mathur and between Priyanka Panwar and Anu Raghavan should be chosen.

A fresh problem seemed to have cropped up on Wednesday since Mathur staked his claim on performance ahead of Sumit Kumar, the fifth member named in the original team.

There was also some debate about whether Ashwini Akkunji or Anu Raghavan was better in their performance through this season, in competitions in Poland and India.

Tintu Luka, having been entered in the 800m, would be available for the women’s team in Rio.

A team can enlist the services of any member of the entire squad in case it required a replacement.

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